In order to keep up with the demands of the marketplace and to insure the continued appreciation of Italian wine, we the people of distant Italian ancestry, have so proclaimed the creation of Italian Wine DOCG +. The criteria for the first group of Italian wines selected, the initial 10, are that they be:

1) From a traditional producing region.

2) That they utilize indigenous grape varieties that have been historically established in Italy.

3) That the use of popular blending grapes, such as Merlot, Cabernet or Syrah not be exploited to enhance the wine flavor and garner high scoring points from the dominant and influential international wine press.

4) That the use of oak be only for subtle purpose and not as a flavor substitute.

5) That the wines respect tradition but do not shun technology.

6) That the wines exhibit Italian character and delicious qualities.

Simply these wines offer a solid bulwark for the patrimony of Italian agriculture and viticulture to the world at large and represent all that is pure and good and fine about Italian wine.

This is not to limit these claims to these 10 wines solely. But initially that these wines are national treasures and should be so designated.

The wines (in alphabetical order) are:

Aglianico del Vulture

Amarone della Valpolicella

Barbaresco

Barolo

Brunello di Montalcino

Chianti Riserva (Classico or Rufina only)

Etna Rosso (fast-tracked from DOC to DOCG +)

Sforzato della Valtellina

Taurasi

Vino Nobile di Montepulciano

We have hired an iconic American entertainer to publicize and promote this event; none other than Wayne Newton, who it appears was separated at birth from his counterpart in Italy, Cavaliere Martelli.

Our snappy slogan, in keeping with the European community guidelines : DOCG +, because DOCG just isn’t good enough anymore.

Special thanks to Jason Cohen of Convicted for Grape for the initial jolt of inspiration for this post. And for Wayne Newton, for just being the swell guy that he has been throughout this amazing process.Danke Schoen!

Yes, this is a fictional piece and should be taken in light of the fact that the world is a very serious place and we all take ourselves very seriously. Not so in this case and post. It's just for fun.

Good idea! I don't like the name: DOCG+ seems Google+. Anyway the eleventh can be "Sagrantino di Montefalco", please don't add more wines in this category otherwise in 3 months we will have more than 50 DOCG+ !

Thomas - Thanks...if i were taking this to that level, most likely those whites would be in the running. But I am thinking the next step will be the European Excellence category. In Honor of merging into the European system, I think we should add an "E" at the end ( for Excellence) - the category will be called: DOPE

Whadda ya think?

Nico - as you might have gathered, this is a "send-up". we might have wanted not to emulate Google+, but it was such an easy target.

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About Me

Writing about Italian wine and culture. Moving between Italy and America. Passionate about both of my countries. Fed by the energy of Italy, California and Texas. Drawn to the open spaces of America and the small vineyards of Italy.
@italianwineguy
ItalianWineTrail@yahoo[dot]com